N E W S & V I E W S • A P R I L 2 0 2 4 7 NCT the remaining two stakeholders. As then State President FW de Klerk lifted the ban on the African National Congress, NCT established offices in the Eastern Transvaal and Southern Cape. By the time Dolly, the cloned sheep and Google had arrived, NCT achieved FSC certification on a group of member farms in 1999, using the NCT Group Certification scheme the first of its kind in Southern Africa, and ShinCel had come onto the scene driven by independent entrepreneurs. By 2002, as Mark Shuttleworth became the first South African to travel in space, and the world was still recovering from the shock and horror of 9/11, NCT log exports to Europe continued to peak. By the time Facebook was launched in 2004 NCT Durban Wood Chips had been commissioned thereby adding much needed chipping capacity to southern KZN growers. As South Africa wins the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France, ShinCel becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of NCT. In 2008, the Dow Jones’s plunge is the precursor to a global recession, President Thabo Mbeki loses the power struggle over the ANC to Jacob Zuma and resigns and NCT Durban Wood Chips becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of NCT. In 2009, as CTC is split between NCT and TWK with NCT’s portion becoming NCT BayFibre, Jacob Zuma and Barack Obama are both elected Presidents of their respective countries. NCT’s mills are ensconced into a single management division and Mondi SilvaCel was purchased (renamed Richards Bay Wood Chips) in the momentous year of 2013, the year that our esteemed Nelson Mandela passed away. NCT underwent extensive rebranding in 2016 just as Donald Trump was elected USA President. 2019 saw South Africa reeling with allegations of state capture, the Zondo Commission ongoing, Cyril Ramaphosa replacing Jacob Zuma and NCT relocating Head Office from central Pietermaritzburg to Montrose. The year after Covid saw NCT adopting a constitutional name change to NCT Forestry Agricultural Co-operative Limited, the very same year that parts of KZN and Gauteng faced civil unrest and riots. Severe flooding across KZN in 2022 was the precursor to further disaster in 2023, when a devastating fire destroyed the NCT Richards Bay Mill complex, and which certainly cut through the euphoria of South Africa’s rugby world cup win – again! Over this 75-year period NCT has transformed remarkably from an organisation, initially marketing 20 000 tonnes of wattle to a local market, into a global leader in export and domestic timber marketing encompassing circa two million tonnes of hardwood per annum. NCT draws strength from adversity and has an exceptional ability to successfully transform and adapt to any incoming challenging situation. A short essay does not do justice to the achievements of NCT, and much detail has, out of space necessity, been omitted. Suffice it to conclude that this has been a lifetime of success for both NCT and the members it has and continues to service. NCT is an established, contributory, and integral part of the universe that we all know as our “current and ongoing reality”. Let us all celebrate its immense achievements and wish it well for the next 75 years.
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